Photo by Sophie Jarry
FOREST SWORDS – that is UK producer Matthew Barnes from Liverpool. His music might still be a hidden gem, but not for long, that much is for sure. Only one reason why NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION could not miss his performance in Leipzig last week. Engravings, his latest record, ranges from daunting dark loops to catchy rhythms, creating an intimate atmosphere. We had to know why and how this one-man-music evokes so many feelings listening to it and what this has got to do with the simple cyclical nature of the music.
So you have been on tour for a couple of weeks, did you enjoy it so far?
It’s really good. We played Hamburg last night, it is really fun but really tiring emotionelly and mentally. It is a lot of travelling and we did like an eight hour journey last night. It is great to play for people and it is amazing to come to cities like this, I would never normally get the chance to go to. And this is fantastic. Coming to venues like this, obviously is just such a privilege.
‘Engravings’ for me feels like the perfect sequel to your last album ‘Dagger Paths’. It sounds like a really dark and wooden place to me, with its strong loops and simple beats that are slowly fading into a complete new sound. So, for yourself, do you work with visual discriptions to get a clear view of your music and the concept of it?
I’m trained as a graphic designer so I think visually about everything. That’s just how my brain works. So, for me, when I start making music I think about it in terms of colour and texture and what it should feel look like. I generally start off with a kind of word or a discription of something and than that can take you down interessting and different avenues.
And how does your work evironmemt look like then?
It is just inside my bedroom. It is a very small set up. I like having parameters in my life. I could quite easily go into recording studios and do this. But for me having such a small cheap set up makes things a bit more exciting. Because it feels like more of a challenge. And it means that, you go less crazy. You don’t have all this technology to explore and thousands of instruments that you can use. You have a very small pallet of sounds and so your music becomes a lot more consistent I think.
So you can actually just focus on your music and don’t get distracted?
Yeah, I think it is a concentration thing. I can concentrate more if I am sitting in front of a laptop rather than a huge mixing desk.
Did you have an idea how the album should sound like after ‘Dagger Paths’? Or was it more like a natural process?
It was a bit of both actually. I was very conscious of making it shorter. Because a lot of Dagger Paths felt very much like a journey for me. I would just start a song and I would finish it when it felt like the track came to an end. It kind of went on a very natural progression on it and finished very naturally. There were so many sounds and textures going on, that I was experimenting with. And I wanted Engravings to be a lot more focussed, taking the same sounds and textures but making them clearer and focussed.
What inspires you? Music, literature, art?
It is actually music that inspires me the least out of every art form, which sounds like a crazy thing to say being a musician. But I am more inspired by concepts. I am really into performance art and visual arts and film. For me those trigger of musical ideas, rahter than me listening to a record and than thinking: Oh, thats cool I will try and replicate that sound. For me it is more exciting to go to an art gallery and think: Oh those colours are cool maybe I could try and reflect that in music. During Engravings I really got into people like John Cage and Vito Acconci, who was a performance artist but is now an architect. He took ideas of performance art and interacting with an audiance into architecture and used those ideas. Filmwise, I guess people like DAVID LYNCH – visually rich with amazing colours, amazing cinematography – for me that is more exciting than listening to music. I think about music so much, that I don’t want to listen to it.
Since your music is quite emotional and it evokes so much feelings, listening to it, I wonder if it is a hard process for you to make music.
It can be very draining. Especially during Engravings where I was so concerned with streamlining things and making things very focussed. That the more you focus the more you become emotionally drained by it. The more you focus on a drumbeat or a melody you become emotionally connected to it so the more you work on it the more it drains you. I felt very tired during it and it was very hard in places but I think hopefully the people listening to it can understand that. With my music I am always trying to be as honest as possible. It is almost like a primal thing you can hear in someones music when they are trying to be honest and true about something and when it is a very open process.
So where are your roots musically speaking? Or what pops into your mind when you think of the first encounter with music?
I was really into pop music when I was a child. Like I saw Michael Jackson in concert and stuff like that, which had a huge impact on me because he was amazing. But as I got older I got into stuff like metal and punk and than got into hip hop and electronica. All those things were filtered into what I am doing now. I still have a big love of mainstream pop music and I am fasciniated by the structure of it and the way it works – I could never create something like that.
FOREST SWORDS – ‘Sometimes it is quite liberating as you can do things on your own terms’
If I take a look at your music videos , knowing about your background as a graphic designer – what do you think makes a true artist? Being a musician, an artist or all together merged into one person?
I think it is just about being honest. Having honest intentions about what you are doing. Whether that is in visual arts or music or architecture. As long as you can communicate a message to someone, that is the most important thing about being a true artist. For me it is not that important to be an allrounder because I am really bad at drawing and painting – I can’t do that. I think it is good to find that thing you are good at and focus on that and make yourself really good at it.
You did everything by yourself on the record. Do you just like to be in control of things?
Partly, it is me being a control freak. It is quite difficult when you put a lot of emotianal energy into something, to hand it over to someone else and have them to understand it the way you intended it to. I had to finish everyhing before I gave it to the record label. I was like, I need to do the art work, I need to mix this myself, I need to make it this fully rounded product of mine. But for the videos, I just can’t do that. I don’t have the ressources or talent to do that. So it is the one thing you have to trust people with. You know you go to the director and say, I need you to do this and you hope it fits with your vision of it.
So it might be easier to work with friends or someone you know concerning your videos?
Yeah, I have done some visuals recently with a friend of mine from Liverpool. He is going on tour with me next month. And we are doing a live visual set together. He is on my wave length.
Do you consider yourself an outsider? Because I figured like your music doesn’t belong to any scene and therefore you might not be able to connect to other musicians?
Yeah, I do.
Is it hard for you and how does it affect you?
It kind of depressed me at first. Because it is like, you don’t fit anywhere. Sometimes you want to belong to a scene or you want to have a connection with people. But the more I have done this and the more I have played shows and talked to people the more you realize that just being a bit outside of things makes you more interessting and it makes people connected to you more. Because you are not just part of this whole thing, that is going on in a scene of some sort, where everyone sounds the same and does the same things. People really recognize that you are trying to do somehting on your own terms. So I kind of come to terms with the fact that I am an outsider now and it is OK to be one. Sometimes it is quite liberating as you can do things on your own terms.
What is your goal in general concerning your music? How do you think you could evolve in your music? Anything you would like to try?
Yeah, I am already thinking about the next album. The thing about going on tour and playing the same songs every night is, that you are constantly wanting to do the next thing now. I am really looking forward to start working on new material. I am constantly thinking about ideas, I am looking at different rhythyms and styles. I am not totally reinventing myself. It has to be a really natural progression. I don’t just want to change for the sake of changing. Just because people expect that the new record sounds completely different. Where I think it should kind of follow your life in a way. I should be naturally allied with your life.
We’ve come to the end. Since our magazine is called NOTHING BUT HOPE AND PASSION I would like to know what these things mean to you?
I am a naturally cynical person. Sometimes it is difficult to have hope. But for me, it is good to have hope, it is good to have hope for the future about your goals and your life. For me even though I might not have hope all the time I always got passion. That is certainly an important thing everyone has to have. The more I have got into being a musician and coming to terms of being an artist I become even more passionate about it. So I left my dayjob last week, for good to be a musician. For me that shows that I have so much passion about it and I am willing to give up my regular job. I feel really strongly about it and I wouldn’t recommend it for everybody but I think having passion keeps you driven and keeps you moving forward in life.
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